Monday, July 19, 2010

construction at the Caldecott Tunnel

The Caldecott Tunnel bores through the Oakland hills to connect the East Bay with Contra Costa County.  It's a heavily traveled route which results in intense traffic snarls during commute hours.  So now a fourth bore is being drilled to the tune of $420 million.  During construction these imposing sound walls have been built to protect the housing development that faces the freeway from construction noise.  Every time I see them I can't help but think of 2001: A Space Odyssey.  Just last week, fossils were uncovered by the dig!
Posted by Oakland Daily Photo at 12:01 AM
Labels: ,

10 comments:

  1. Ann, Chen Jie Xue 陈洁雪July 19, 2010 at 12:03 AM

    Do you havee to pay to use the tunnel?

    ReplyDelete
  2. HildaJuly 19, 2010 at 3:51 AM

    I wish construction sites here used sound walls! Never even heard of them before this.

    LOL at 2001. But nah, too hole-y. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. James MarkJuly 19, 2010 at 9:51 AM

    A bold picture - shades of the Berlin wall, but thankfully with a different purpose.

    ReplyDelete
  4. SherrieJuly 19, 2010 at 12:57 PM

    Never even heard of sound walls. What a great idea. The idea of finding fossils intrigues me even more. I just wanted to stop by to say thank you, belatedly, for your words of encouragement about the opening of my shop. It is going well. I have posted photos today. Again thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  5. ElettraJuly 19, 2010 at 2:21 PM

    In my town just below my house they are building the new courthouse with project the great architect Renzo Piano, to do this, unfortunately, have eliminated many orange trees and have not created any protection for the noise, imagine what we are passing

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bob CroweJuly 19, 2010 at 6:46 PM

    Open the pod door, Hal.

    You sure this isn't a wormhole into another dimension, or maybe Sacramento?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Louis la VacheJuly 19, 2010 at 7:22 PM

    «Louis» wonders how much less this would have cost if the usual Calfornia nay-sayers hadn't delayed this much-needed fourth bore. This same group helped drive the cost over-run on the Bay Bridge replacement to over $400,000,000...

    M. Scélérat, éditeur à «Louis»: Now, now, don't start one of your political rants here. This is not the time or place for it...

    «Louis» à M. Scélérat, éditeur: Speaking of their finding fossils at the site of the new bore, I didn't know your ancestors were in California 1,000,000 years ago. That explains a lot about you...

    ReplyDelete
  8. MoJuly 20, 2010 at 1:53 AM

    Sound wall. does it really work?

    ReplyDelete
  9. LinneaJuly 20, 2010 at 10:12 AM

    I read about this in the paper; nice to see what they're talking about.

    ReplyDelete
  10. TaniaJuly 20, 2010 at 1:27 PM

    That`s much money..and a very big wall:-)
    Wish you wonderful summerdays!

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)